Talbot’s eyes widened when I said this.

“And my mom…” I bit my lip. “There’s no way to get through to her.” I didn’t even mention Jude, because I had no idea how to start helping him. I couldn’t even bring myself to look him in the eyes again.

Talbot brushed his hand through his wavy milk-chocolate-brown hair. “What about me? I can try to stop you.”

“No, Tal,” I said, using the close-friends nickname he asked me not to use once because it sounded too good coming from my lips. “There’s nothing you could do, short of miraculously making a moonstone appear out of thin air, that could make me change my mind. I’m going to go home to pack, and then I’m leaving in the morning.”

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it again as if reconsidering whatever it was that he’d wanted to stay. For a second, I thought I saw a deep pain flash behind his eyes.

I rocked up onto my tiptoes and brushed a light kiss on his cheek. His whole body shuddered with a sigh at the touch of my lips on his skin. He cared too much about me. “Just let me leave. Don’t make this harder than it already is.”

I brushed my hand down his arm, and he tried to snatch at my fingers as I turned away from him.

“No. Grace?”

My back was to him now, but I could hear the pleading urgency that filled his voice.

“Let me go.” I reached for the stairwell door.

“I can’t,” he said. “I can’t let you trade yourself to Sirhan.”

“I have to.”

“No you don’t.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me around to face him. “Because I have this.” He pressed something hard, flat, and warm into my palm, then pulled his hand away so I could see what he’d given me.

I almost didn’t recognize what it was at first. It was shaped like a rounded-off triangle, and the color was almost silver instead of the usual blackish hue. A large chink in it exposed an almost crystal-like center under its smooth surface—but the heat that pulsed off of it was unmistakable.

It felt just like hope.

“A moonstone?” I gasped.

Chapter Nine

FLAT-LINE

SIX MOONSTONE PULSES LATER

“How did you … ? Did you find this in the warehouse? Why didn’t you tell me right away?”

Talbot cleared his throat and turned his head so he wasn’t looking me in the eyes.

My gaze flitted back to the stone. It looked so weathered and tattered. Was that from the exposure to the fire in the warehouse? no, I realized. This stone was too large to have been one of the shattered fragments he could have found at the warehouse. I ran my finger over the surface of the stone, noticing the small hole drilled into one of the points of the triangle, probably where it had been strung onto a chain or leather string. My inspection of the stone lingered on the raw chink in the surface. It almost resembled the shape of a crescent moon that had been worn away by almost a year of being exposed to the elements.…

“This is the stone we were looking for in the churchyard, isn’t it? The other half of Daniel’s moonstone?”

I could see the tension in Talbot’s clenched jaw. He gave the slightest nod. He was hiding something, and I was pretty sure I knew what it was. The thought of it made my stomach churn.

“When did you find this?”

“Before.”

“Before when?”

“Before today.”

“You mean you found this yesterday? Before you told me to accept that it was hopeless that I was going to find it. Because you had it already. You had it all that time … before we decided to search the warehouse? Before you volunteered to go with my dad?” Raw power surged through my body, and my muscles clenched with a fire that burned just as strong as the betrayal I felt. “Before my dad got hurt!”

“Yes,” he breathed out.

“So you were just playing along? You had this stone all that time, and you didn’t tell me. You took my dad to that warehouse even though you knew he didn’t need to go. Were you only going there so you could hide anything he would have found there, too? My dad wouldn’t have gotten hurt if it weren’t for you! Why the hell would you keep this from me?”

He opened his mouth, but I didn’t let him speak.

“I know already,” I said. “You didn’t want me to have this moonstone because you don’t want Daniel to come back. Because you know you can’t compete with him. You think if he never comes back, I’ll eventually choose you. Well, you’re wrong.”

“I did it because I love you, Grace.”

“You don’t love me. You don’t even know what love is. You’re a selfish bastard. Anyone who would do this is a monster. You only tried to save my dad because you thought it would endear you to me, make me love you. Not because it was the right thing to do.” This realization made my insides lurch. “I could never love someone like that. I could never love someone who would hide this from me.” I held up the moonstone in my fist. But what I really wanted to do was let that fist fly. I wanted to punch Talbot in the face more than anything. No, I wanted to rip his face off. He deserves it.

My muscles rumbled with adrenaline.

How could he have done this to you?

“I will never love you!”

“Grace, please. I’m sorry. It was stupid and selfish, and I shouldn’t have…” He reached out to grab my arm.

“Don’t you touch me!” My hand went sailing and slammed into his chest in a wing chun–style punch. A move he’d taught me. The hit landed hard. I felt bone crack on impact. Talbot flew backward and hit the stair railing with the satisfying crunch of body impacting with metal. He cried out, clutching at his rib cage. I had no doubt I’d broken at least one of his ribs.

The wolf in my head whispered promises of all the things it would do to Talbot if I’d just let it free, and I wanted to do more damage.…

No. I couldn’t. I clutched that moonstone to my chest and willed its calming power into my body. I couldn’t let Talbot cause me to lose control. I had to get away from him. Away from his deceit. Away from his lies.

“I never want to see you again.” I pulled open the stairwell door and burst through the doorway into the lobby outside the ICU.

I hit the Call button next to the ICU door. I told the nurse I’d left my car keys in the waiting area, and she let me into the unit. I stormed down the hall, past my dad’s room, and kept going deeper into the ICU until I was certain Talbot hadn’t followed me. I stopped and leaned against a window, clasping the moonstone against my chest, trying to get ahold of my senses. That is, until I noticed a shrill beeping noise, like the one from my father’s monitor that had gone nuts after I’d tried to heal him.